The Nudge - Dispatch 28 | Bealtaine 🌸
Welcome to The Nudge
Bealtaine 2025
“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee.
It blossoms and the bee comes”
- Mark Nepo
Dear Friends, Kindred Spirits and Anam Chairde
Táimid as bĂs -we are excited to prepare our monthly care package, The Nudge, for you as we step into the vibrant season of Bealtaine.
Right now we are being reminded on a daily basis of the fragility of this place we call home. In these times of bewilderment we are being called to remember our wild selves and the wild world that nourishes us.
In many indigenous cultures there was no word for “nature” because they did not experience wilderness as some “thing” separate from themselves. We seem to have lost that understanding. We need a map to help us find our way home.
The Wheel of the Year is not just a calendar—it’s a cosmology. An ancient spiral of time that honours both light and dark, death and rebirth, inner and outer realms. The Irish imagination is rooted in a mythic consciousness where both heartbreak and enchantment co-exist, where contradiction is not a problem, but a portal. Just as the ancient ones danced with opposing cosmic forces we are invited to move between the pull of descent and ascent in our lives today.
May the force be with us
Beir Bua - with victory
Kathy
Bealtaine, or May Day, is a fire festival that marks the transition from the dark to the bright half of the year. This sacred time invites us to return to our senses and reconnect with the abundant alchemical medicine of the earth. As the land bursts into life with the white blossoms of hawthorn & the sweet scent of gorse, we are called to embrace the fullness of this season, where vitality, growth, and sensual aliveness abound.
The gateway to this sensual aliveness begins with our senses—our felt connection to the living world around us. The portal of Bealtaine ushers in the sensorial season of blossoming, boldness, and vibrant awakening. As we move with the rhythms of nature we can see the dappled sunlight on the green leaves, we smell the perfumed fragrance of violets, we hear the hum of lifeforce in the air, we taste the wild herbs and we feel the sap rising in our cells.
At Bealtaine, we are invited to dance with opposites—the masculine and feminine energies, the seen and unseen—and to honour the sacred interplay between them. This is a time to step fully into the season of fertility, a time to honour the blossoming of new possibilities and the sweetness of unfolding. Like the ancient peoples of Ireland who gathered around the bonfires on the Hill of Uisneach, we are called to kindle our inner fire and embrace the fullness of who we are becoming.
As you approach this portal of Bealtaine, may you find the courage to open, to blossom, and to dance with the energies of the season. Let this portal guide you into a deeper connection with yourself, the earth, and the aliveness within and around you. May this time of fertile creation. fuel the rekindling of your own soul’s fire.
journal prompts to inspire you:
🌸 What is ready to blossom in my life right now?
🌸 What dreams, bright ideas or creative projects have I been kindling that I am ready to risk sharing with the world?
🌸 How am I being nudged to return to my senses and honour my sensual life?
what's coming up at the trailblazery:
As the Great Wheel turns, we are invited to pause and remember what we have travelled through together. We are excited to let you know what the future holds for our community here at The Trailblazery.
Homecoming Retreat
We’re delighted to let you know that we’ll soon be gathering on the land once again for Homecoming—a seasonal retreat taking place at the threshold of Lughnasa.
This is the only in-person residential retreat I will be hosting this year. We will gather in a very special part of Ireland that has my heart, on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork, one of the most mystical places in Ireland. We will be surrounded by temperate Ancient Irish Oakwood rainforest, rugged mountains, cascading rivers, waterfalls, powerful stone circles and sacred sites. I will be joined by a very special guest, my dear soul sister Ajeet—musician, songwriter, and carrier of ancient healing practices whose presence will deepen and enrich our shared journey.
Homecoming is an invitation to align with our greatest destiny and step onto the path of our dán. Just as the tribes once assembled to give thanks for a bountiful yield, this time-out-of-time experience is curated for us to harvest our gifts and taste the sweet medicine of our soul’s calling—with the support of our soul tribe.
This is a rare and powerful opportunity to be together in person—to gather on the land, share in ritual, and practice in community. If you’re feeling the pull reclaim your dúchas and kinship, perhaps this is your call. Homecoming is open to all who feel drawn to walk this path. You can join the waitlist here to be the first to know when applications open. I cant wait to welcome you.
3 curated resources to mind your life & nourish your senses in the days ahead:
❀ Listen: For your ears
Conceived by Folk by the Oak festival, Spell Songs is a musical evolution of both The Lost Words & The Lost Spells books by acclaimed author Robert Macfarlane and award-winning illustrator Jackie Morris; creating a listening experience that intersects music, literature, language and art, as a call to reawaken our love of the wild. You can explore and enjoy them here.
✦ Connect: For your soul
As we move into the season of Bealtaine, here are a few rituals to honor the energy of this vibrant time:
Wash your face in the dew that receives the first rays of May Day sunlight to bestow beauty and vitality for the year ahead.
Strip off and roll naked in the dewy grass at dawn to invite extra good luck and a deeper connection with the earth.
Decorate your doors, windows, byres, and livestock with yellow flowers like primroses, gorse, marigolds, and buttercups to invite protection, prosperity, and the blessings of summer.
These simple yet potent rituals invite you to honor the land and its cycles, grounding you in the magic of Bealtaine.
âś® Watch: For your eyes
We are delighted to share a few gems from our Library of Resources with you. During Bealtaine at The Hedge School, we welcomed Lucy O'Hagan, Forager and Founder of Wild Awake Ireland, who shared a powerful message on rewilding. Lucy, whose work bridges culture, ecology, and spirituality, is deeply passionate about helping people reconnect with their true sense of belonging—both to themselves and the land. In this beautiful moment, she blends ancient wisdom with a vision for our future, inviting us to rediscover the embodied, relational ways of the earth.
EnJOY these days - may this shimmering light be yours.
Thank you for walking this path with us,
BeannachtaĂ,
Kathy and all at The Trailblazery